Browns' eyes will be on Indianapolis

Those teams with first-round byes in the NFL playoffs may not be the only ones resting their starters next week. If Browns Head Coach Romeo Crennel wanted, he could as well.

Todd Porter

Those teams with first-round byes in the NFL playoffs may not be the only ones resting their starters next week. If Browns Head Coach Romeo Crennel wanted, he could as well.

Postseason football in Cleveland has almost nothing to do with the regular-season finale at Cleveland Browns Stadium. There is only one longshot scenario where a Cleveland win over San Francisco will matter, and that would be a rare Indianapolis-Tennessee tie.

If the Browns are going to play into 2008, the Colts need to beat the Titans. In a matter of one game — the end of one half, really — Cleveland lost control of its postseason destiny. Now, Browns fans may have more of an interest in the Indianapolis game than their home team.

“We were not able to get it done, and it’s disappointing, realizing what was on the line and what was at stake,” Crennel said after his team may have blown a shot at the postseason with a 19-14 loss to Cincinnati.

Quarterback Derek Anderson threw four interceptions. Two came before halftime and resulted in Bengal touchdowns. Another came in the end zone during Cleveland’s opening second-half drive.

Beating Cincinnati would have clinched a playoff spot for the Browns.

“That’s the disappointing thing,” Crennel said. “We had it (control) in our hands today if we had won, and we didn’t.”

There were quite a few long faces on Cleveland players in the postgame locker room. But there was still a bit of optimism for a team that seems to have lived a charmed season.

The sixth seed in the AFC comes down to Tennessee and Cleveland.

“We deserve it,” tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. said. “We work really hard. So do they. But we want it. We really want it. It was right there for us to take it, but we just didn’t take it.”

The Browns have lost three games that came down to either long, last-minute field goals that missed or the whisker of a Hail Mary that was nearly answered in Arizona.

Those three losses may haunt the team. But they won games the same way. Phil Dawson twice rattled key kicks through the goalposts and off the stanchion.

“We had a chance to control own our destiny,” receiver Braylon Edwards said. “We had a chance to win (Sunday) and go home and enjoy Christmas, and everything is lovey-dovey. We had a chance to go back to the city where there’s a bunch of excitement.

“Now we have to pray on the Tennessee game, and whatever else, and watch scenarios. You don’t want to have to figure out every scenario. You don’t want to be in that situation. But the fact of the matter is, we are.”

Cleveland’s scenario is simple. The final game has no bearing on the Browns’ playoff hopes. The Colts, however, do.